Havok, the premier provider of interactive software and services to digital creators in the games and movie industries, announces today the official release of Havok 4.0, a modular suite of artist tools and run-time technology that dramatically accelerates the development of cross-platform, cutting edge electronic games and special effects for films, meeting the needs of the world's top developers and producers.

Havok 4.0 enhances Havok's industry-leading game-play physics and animation products (Havok Physics™ and Havok Animation™). It also introduces two new products - Havok Behavior™ and Havok FX™ - to accelerate development of sophisticated interactive character behaviors, and to deliver an unprecedented level of physically-based "special effects" phenomena. The combined 4.0 solution represents a best-of-class SDK and tool set that puts power and flexibility in the hands of today's leading game developers and film effects wizards.

With Havok 4.0, game developers can select from a modular suite of technologies and tools spanning game-play physics, character animation, behaviors and special effects, optimized for the widest range of platforms, including Sony Computer Entertainment Inc
(SCEI) much-anticipated “PLAYSTATION®3” computer entertainment system, and Microsoft’s 64bit Windows operating system.

“Havok is committed to developing a suite of products that allow developers to create games that take realism to new levels, that take less time to develop and can be built more economically,” says David O’Meara, CEO of Havok. “Havok 4.0, Havok Behavior, and Havok FX are evidence of this focus and our commitment to continue to introduce groundbreaking solutions. We expect broad adoption of Havok 4.0 in our customer base.”

Havok 4.0’s tools and SDK are designed to be modular and open – so they can be integrated easily into existing production pipelines, reducing the overall iteration time needed to create immersive game-play experiences and special effects. The Havok 4.0 suite is backed by expert support and professional services, leveraging the experience of over 160 commercially released Havok-powered game SKUs.

In the 4.0 release, Havok’s HydraCore™ technology has been optimized to distribute physics and animation even more broadly across specialized cell and multi-core processing units in today’s most advanced game and PC hardware configurations. This maximizes game-play responsiveness and overall performance, enabling literally thousands of game-critical, game-play objects and characters to interact in real-time.

Havok Behavior™ introduces an SDK and stand-alone composition tool that works seamlessly with Havok’s plug-in tools for 3ds Max, Maya, and XSI, enabling rapid creation of real-time blending and character performances that respond intelligently to other characters and the physical world around them.

Havok FX™ adds an unprecedented level of hardware-accelerated physical phenomena, by utilizing graphics processing (GPU) technology from industry giants like NVIDIA and ATI to simulate tens of thousands of objects that collide in real-time, to add eye-popping effects to games.

The first games making use of Havok 4.0 are due out in Fall/Winter this year.